Starbucks workers at 150 stores to strike over alleged ban on Pride decor
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Workers at more than 150 Starbucks locations are set to go on strike over allegations that they were banned from putting up Pride decorations. The union Starbucks Workers United said that 3,000 workers will strike at the more than 150 stores over the course of the next week. The union is demanding that all Starbucks locations be allowed to display Pride decorations to support the LGBT+ community.
The union Starbucks Workers United said that 3,000 workers will strike at the more than 150 stores over the course of the next week. The union is demanding that all Starbucks locations be allowed to display Pride decorations to support the LGBT+ community.
Starbucks has rejected the allegations, saying that the company hasn’t issued any policies or guidance telling stores to remove Pride decorations.
The union alleges that the company didn’t allow some stores to decorate their coffee shops for Pride Month or that they requested that decorations be taken down after they had already been put up.
In a statement shared with The Independent, the union said that this is the “latest in Starbucks’s retaliation against workers, which includes threatening workers’ access to existing benefits, denying new benefits to union stores, firing worker leaders like Lexi Rizzo, and other illegal attempts to dissuade partners from organizing”.
Moe Mills, a shift supervisor in Richmond Heights, west of St Louis, Missouri said that “Starbucks is scared of the power that their queer partners hold, and they should be. Their choice to align themselves with other corporations that have withdrawn their ‘support’ of the queer community in the time we need it most shows that they are not the inclusive company they promote themselves to be”.
The strike action comes amid a rightwing backlash against Target and Bud Light over their Pride Month activities.
“We’re striking with pride to show the public who Starbucks really is, and to let them know we’re not going anywhere,” Mr Mills added.
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